


In Penguin's Shadow: Marcus

by MischiefHowl



Category: Anthropomorphism, Furry (Fandom), Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Beating, Experimentation, Gen, Minor Character Death, Needles, Torture, hope these are all the triggers, syringes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 01:06:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6032551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MischiefHowl/pseuds/MischiefHowl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Indian Hill is an inhumane place where they've been whispered in rumors that they can even bring the dead back to life. Marcus was perhaps just as unlucky. Having been raised on the streets and no one that'll miss him, he will become something that is no longer human...</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Penguin's Shadow: Marcus

**Author's Note:**

> I know I promised on Tumblr to make a fic based on the images of Oswald's time in Arkham from Wrath of The Villains trailer (at the time of this posting) but I was tempted to do something else before that (and the fact I've no idea how to write that thing!) So I decided to put my own Fursona into Gotham. He just seemed to somehow fit more in this universe. Also wanted to add to In The Penguin's Shadow. I don't know if I will do more beyond Mockingbird and this, only time will tell.
> 
> So here it is. A random sort of backstory. Also kind of want to blame Zootopia for this.

It wasn't a chance meeting that they met. He knew it, he believed it, denied it was random. It was a kind and cruel fate. A path that led him here.. Years ago, if someone told him that a crime lord would be his salvation he'd have laughed in their face. But he was here, by his side. Watching with eyes hidden behind the cloak that hid his body from all view..

He had to back up for his story. Perhaps when he was more innocent in the dark streets of Gotham. He was in a way like Cat, an orphan that waited for parents that he hoped would come and take him home. Selina knew the ropes better than he did, she always did. He was the clumsy one that got caught seven out of ten times he took something and was nearly killed for it.

Marcus was a seventeen year old boy at the time he was taken. He was to slow, to gullible, to trusting back then. When offered food he was overjoyed along with some others. He looked back at his naive self in disgust. That he practically ate out of their hands. At least until he felt the sharp prick jab his side and he fell into the darkness..

Waking up in a cage was a horrifying feeling. How he screamed for help, giving away that he was awake. 

"Ahhh" A voice came. "He's awake. Good. Thought I dosed this one into a coma" A laugh that was cruel.

"W-Where am I?" He would crawl towards the end of the cage and tried to get at the lock. 

"You can call it your new home. Welcome home, you are not leaving here either.. well unless you die than we can say you can leave.. well most of you anyway"

The man grinned as he looks into the cage. Seeing only an experiment, some trash that humanity didn't care about. And he was right. People didn't care for street people, seeing them as useless and not showing much sympathy. No one would miss them. No missing posters were assigned. No word spoken unless it was between those of the streets. A little mourning before moving on with their lives.

The experiments had no name for it. Inhumane, cruel. No words came close to describing. Two of those captured were mutated by the liquids pumped into their veins. Again and again, their screams destroying their vocal cords until they could only silent scream. Their bones changing and breaking with the new DNA, until finally they lay still. A mercy that they died finally in his eyes. But to the ones doing it were disappointed. "Number 863: Deceased." They said calmly with a hint of disappointment. "The Bird and Wolf has failed. Prepare for extraction and transport."

Marcus could only watch those die, or worse, live on the table. Seeing those live was far worse. Those that no longer looked human, that cried at the loss of their humanity, their names stripped to mere numbers. And the torture that followed. The tests.

He was fed as a lab rat was. His water was in a tube with some metal stick sticking into the cage. He had to use his tongue to push the ball up so to drink some water. The water had a substance in it that kept him from going into a frenzy and attacking the bars. He would be weaker and could never starve himself of the water for to long..

The food was better. Given meat and fruit so as to keep him healthy and worse it was high quality, like a last meal before his time came. He often found himself trying to read the large name painted on the wall. IND and HI. Indhi.. it made no sense but he always struggled to read it. He repeated who he was in the hours of the night, desperately attempting to block out the screams in the night that echo'd louder than the day. 

"My name is Marcus.. My name is Marcus.. My name is Marcus" He repeated over and over. "I'm.. I'm... seventeen.. years old. Seventeen years old. My parents are coming. My parents.. are coming..." 

It was never truly helpful. Not in the least. He would be taken and he hoped somehow miraculously he will die quickly. He didn't know how long it had been. There was no windows or implication it was day or night. The warm sun seemed to shun this place. The night seemed to stay far away. Only the darkness was here. Evil... darkness.

He would finally get his turn. And how he fought, kicking, screaming. He always promised to himself that he would walk calmly and accept it. Promise shattered as soon as they opened the cage door. He bit and scratched in desperation to somehow flee. But he was strapped down. His collar around his neck electrocuting his whole being to the point he swore he would die..

Strapped down on the table like an animal bound. He struggles weakly and begged for mercy while they laughed at his pathetic self. But otherwise ignored his tears and snot streaming down the side of his face.  
The needle came and tore into his skin. His skin seemed to yield to the hellish syringe and he knew his fight was finished. The liquid that pumped into his veins was like burning lava that he swore was burning out his body. Reaching his rapid beating heart and spreading. How he screamed, screamed and begged to what ever God heard to kill him. To just take him away. Even if he was going to Hell, he'd accept it. Because Hell was much better than here.

And finally his eyes look up, blurry and vision throbbing. The words along the wall was so clear to read. As he heard his bones snap out of place and rearrange. He read it again and again. 

_Indian Hill... Indian Hill... Indian Hill..._

He blacked out sometimes. His heart stopping for as long as a minute before being forced to pump again. His organs feeling like they were melting. His bones burning. His soul feeling like it was shredding. Body felt like it was tearing in half. His howling of pain became what felt like a roar escaping from a lion that was caged for far to long. 

Marcus was dragged away, barely able to remain conscious as he was pulled down the hall. He could see a few others in other rooms. He couldn't understand or comprehend what was happening. Was he alive? Was he dead... how he hoped he was dead.. or dying.

And he was thrown into a room. A chain linking around his collar and thrown a new black and white striped outfit to wear. "Enjoy your stay. Feline." And they slammed the door closed, locking it.  
His pain ceased slowly after about a week. But the mental scars remained. The being that lay here was no longer the young human tramp that was taken. He was larger now. He looked at his hands and saw they had become almost like paws. Claws retracting in and out. The paw pads were dark and yet so soft when he touched them together. Like a cat's.

Looking at himself in a mirror was what broke him. A scream of anguish. He was no longer human. Not even the slightest resemblance of a boy, much less a human. Only his blue-green eyes remained. His whole form was like that of an anthropomorphic wild cat. Though as to which he couldn't quite tell. The black 'tear stream' markings and some spots and strange tire like looking mark on his back reminded him of a Cheetah. But the rest, such as his grey fur and white areas of his body made him think of the snow leopard. But most of all what he felt when he looked at that body, this new body... he felt like a monster that should have been put down. 

Even if he did escape he couldn't go looking like he was now. He'd be hunted down for sure. His tail so large and fluffy curled around him. There was new feeling and muscles that he shouldn't feel or know.  
It wouldn't end there. He was treated only as an animal. They ignored his words or protests. He learned early not to attack them. He was severely beaten and starved for a few days as to 'teach' him good manners. He was tested for speed and strength. And they made sure to remind him viciously that he was only an animal. Psychologically trying to destroy what ever humanity remained. And tried to force Stockholm Syndrome on him. When he was on all fours and obeying his command without so much as a whisker twitch. Did they feed him again, like a good pet. 

Marcus was now nothing but a pet. He forced himself to act the part. He came to know what hybrid he was. A king cheetah mixed with snow leopard DNA. He was proved to be a success. And yet he was in such sorrow. They were right. If he escaped, he'd be treated like he was. A monster. A freak. 

But he'd take being killed by people over what Indian Hill planned for him and the others before him. He had seen the few that lived through the transformation. They were broken beyond repair. No longer able to speak their once human tongue. Only to screech or growl like the animals they were truly. Marcus knew there was no hope even if he did escape with them, they were beyond help. 

Weapons was what they were meant to be. Obeying without question and with their now animal-like forms. They were just as vicious as any man with a gun. He refused to have any part of it. He was smart, to smart to be broken. He only did what he did to fake his loyalty.. to show he was a 'tame' beast.

He accepted what he was to a point and he knew that big cats weren't to ever be tamed. His claws ready to kill if it means escape. Teeth, ready to tear out an enemy's throat. And escape he did.

\---

It wasn't a miracle, no one came in to save him. No GCPD rushing in and carrying him out or the others. It was just a random event that he took. That he knew would never happen again. But also he had the help of someone else. Someone who was also a slave to the tortures and hell he himself went through.

A man that seemed off. The rage in those eyes proved he refused to be here just as Marcus was. And so they planned to flee. By any means necessary.

The name was familiar to him. But the nickname had set off alarm bells. Oswald Cobblepot. The Penguin. Former king of Gotham, was strapped here on the chair before him, collar like his with the chain attached to it and the chair, eyes blazing in the dark in an attempt to focus on the one that spoke to him and hid themselves.

Marcus kept himself in the darkness, no allowing an inch to show in the light to reveal what he was. Even as they stood together, he hid himself under the torn up fabric he fashioned last minute. His skill was used on the very ones that made him learn it, that made him what he was. Claws and teeth grabbing and ripping as Oswald limp-ran by.

Oswald had revealed the beast he was. As soon as he was free and got a hold of the knife. He sliced away the defenseless, avenging himself. And the insanity they pushed more into his already deranged mind. The blood that stained his striped cloths made him laugh cruelly at his victims. 

"Get on my back" He looks at the twisted leg.

"What?" Oswald glanced at his own leg and back up with some annoyance. "I can run--"

"Your slower than me. Just get on and hold on tight" Oswald reluctantly obeyed, having to force himself to ignore the growing soreness in his leg. He had to hold onto the shoulders and noticed finally how tall the other was. And felt the muscle under the fabric but felt something else.. it felt soft. Almost like... fur?

The cat ran much quicker than what most humans can hope to do. The muscles in his legs were now build for the speed he had but also the silence in his step. His paw pads aiding in the stealth. 

Oswald pointed each hall, telling which way to turn and go. Having made sure he learned which way he turned when he was brought hill. The place he had some knowledge of and now knowledge he never hoped to use. And the memory of who had 'convinced' him to admit himself made his heart hurt. Jim had told him that he needed help and it somehow in it's own twist made sense. And perhaps get Jim out of the fire... but it didn't. His confession and lies were ignored fully and everyone still believed Jim to be a murderer and accomplice. He'd made sure to remember those that dared taint his name. From the former mayor to Barnes. Force and death and blackmail seemed to be all Gotham knew.. and so he will make it so Jim is seen as an innocent man. It was the least he could do for him and Lee and their... their child. 

Marcus ran and ran until he was past the gates and far enough so he could finally stop and rest. He allowed Oswald off his back finally, ears lowered as he tried to catch his breath. "They tampered with you to? No human can run at a speed as you did for this long." Oswald says as he looks around with a frown. "No phone at all.."  
"I take it you have family waiting?" 

"Not in the way your thinking. Do you have a place to go?"

"No, but I will find somewhere to go.. somewhere out there."

The cloaked cat and the Penguin walked side by side through the darkness of Gotham. Using the shadows to conceal themselves. Each time a siren went by they hid best they could behind anything that would not reveal them. 

Only went finding a payphone (and threatened a civilian for their wallet) did Penguin call Gabe for assistance. "This is where we separate, Mr. Cobblepot"

"You can reconsider at any time. It is the least I can do for your help and my appreciation."

He shook his head. "I will think about your offer but for now I want to try to find where I belong.. if it is anywhere"

Oswald watched the strange being leave down the street and one blink and he was gone like the wind.

The two would not meet until a few years down the road.

Penguin was the one that anyone went to for anything. It seems he had everything you ask, for a price of course. The Black Market was his to rule, seeing and learning everything there. The shipments and all things.

But tonight he was met by something that was truly not of this world. The price was, well, almost unbelievable. But when he looked into the cage he could see why.

\---

Marcus had tried these few years to help people, to eat, and survive. But the fear remained. He couldn't reveal himself or stay near public areas for long. The anxiety kicks in as well as the memories.   
Oswald was reported missing, having escaped Arkham. But no one really dared to find him and much less give any information. 

Marcus however was called much crueler 'Wild Beast Escaped' And how everyone looked. Trying to find and catch him. The reward was amazing, so that explained why people tried to find him. The brief description was that he was a hybrid cheetah/snow leopard and was extremely dangerous. Kill was the last resort.

It was once again his foolishness that brought him into another cage. He had been skilled, but the sight of fresh meat drew him into a trap. His animal instinct taking over and he nearly was on all fours when he stalked the meat that was truly a large chicken. He would attack it and only when eating it did he feel the all to familiar prick of a needle as a dark hit his side. He growled out as he fled, but he only got a few feet before he fell on his face, drifting into a sleep.

"You are to expensive for what price this poster is putting up, freak" Was the words that greeted him when he woke. In another cage. The memories flooded and he attacked the cage, leaving claw marks on the steel walls. "We can sell you for much more. Or just have people mess with you.. whatever the hell you are"

He was kept hidden until the reward posters were forgotten and the people lost hope to catch the beast. Only than did they begin to show him in the market. Barely fed, but bathed enough to keep him looking.. pretty.. Whoever bought him could be evil or creepy. Sometimes the captors joked that he would be skinned or cut up and sold, or worse stuffed and used as a display...

But the day someone looked at the cage, he looked back in the familiar green eyes of Penguin. 

"Sure is expensive isn't it?"

"Why yes, Mr. Penguin. But you see, he is the perhaps the first of his kind. And probably the last. It is even capable of human speech."

Penguin looks closer at the cage and the large cat came forward, looking at him. The pleading and intelligent eyes looking into the unmerciful ones. His paw reaching out slowly. "Help me... please" The voice was hoarse and yet he knew it. He heard it before. And the eyes became widen with some awe. 

"Were you..?" A slow and almost guilty nod yes made Oswald breathe out a sigh. "I will take him.. I owe him a favor after all."

The captors exchanged confused looks. Penguin knew this cat monster? But the money was given and Oswald smirks some. "He is the only of his kind? Than he is mine. I must have at least one of everything and so this little feline is mine."

And Marcus knew from that day on that Penguin, no matter how cruel, was his savior. The one that he will follow. He was brought to The Iceberg Lounge and was fed fish provided by Penguin or one of his men. He was still refusing to show his full self to anyone other than Penguin.

"You hid yourself from me while we escape because of how you looked?" Oswald asked one night as the cat ate some salmon.

After some chewing and swallowing down his meal did he nod his head, ears lowering. "I did. I still choose to hide this... form.. from anyone. Look at me, I am not how I was nor will I ever hope to change back"  
"Indian Hill has succeeded in animal and human merge? That is both awful and magnificent"

"You THINK that it was magnificent!" He snarled, uncaring just who he was talking to at the moment as he stood up, allowing his new silk cloak to fall and show his body with an anger and disgust. "I was treated horribly there when I was human! They picked me up because no one cared about me or the countless others that live on the streets! We were their lab rats and how much I wished for Death to take me even while on the table. The pain was something I can never explain. I lost my humanity on that table and nearly was broken like the few that survived this horrid transformation!" He placed both paws on the arm rests and got close enough to Penguin that his sharp teeth was mere inches and the hot breath washed over him. "What you suffered in your life. It was nothing but a pinch to the arm compared to me."

Oswald was unyielding to the outburst. "I am sorry. I spoke out of term, Mar. Truly you have suffered.. Indian Hill will pay for what they did to you, me, and others there.." He didn't feel the anger in him as he should. He instead felt the true need to apologize. He had spoke before he thought. And seeing the body and knowing this creature was once human.. young one at that. He didn't know what agony it would be. His hand reached out and gently pets the head where the dark blue dyed 'hair' was. "But you are beautiful. Always remember that. You are strong and fast with a grace none can know, my dear cat. Those that disagree would know the mistake they've made as they die"

"Penguin I can only kill when I have no choice."

"Now now, who saved you from the tortures of this world? I only ask you do some jobs for me, what I do is easy. I give them a chance to redeem themselves. One chance and they die."

"Penguin!" Came the so familiar voice of Mockingbird. Penguin's substitute. Only to Marcus' nose could he tell them apart before looking at them. Ethan was younger it was obvious among other things. Marcus got off the chair and stood, putting his cloak back on. "We got a problem with GCPD again! They are trying to stop a shipment from arriving"

"Hmmm, not a good deal at all. Ethan, Marcus, may you go and... persuade them?"

Marcus rolls his eyes. Of course-- he knew he'd pay for his outburst and here it was. "Yes sir" They said in unison. And they went.

Marcus would begin to trust Penguin, perhaps the only human he could really trust. Even after he was shown to Penguin's group as the anthropomorphic creature, he remained to be in the ranks. Selina and him getting along and him being a pushover to the cats she cared for and sometimes understood what their meows meant. 

Him being called at times to sleep by Penguin when the nights were cold and him using his fluffy tail as warmth against him. He was happy.. he finally had a home.


End file.
